MICHAEL REARDON “THE GOD OF FREE SOLO!”

How many years does it take to climb 280 routes FREE SOLO?

In Joshua Tree, Michael Reardon took less than 24 hours, climbing difficulties up to 7c+!

No mistake, you got it right. More than 3.5 kilometers vertically with no way out on itineraries still labeled as kicks in the teeth.

He is the Maradona of Free Solo.

Some of the most legendary ropeless climbs: Equinox 7c at Joshua Tree, Vampire at Tahquitz, Ghetto Blaster 8a (5.13b), Lateralus 8b+ (5.14a) and Urban Struggle 7b (5.12b) at Malibu Creek, Pirate 7b+/c (5.12c/d) at Suicide Rocks, Outrage onsight 7c+ (5.13a) at Boney Bluffs in the Santa Monica Mountains.

He repeated Romantic Warrior, an infamous route in California's Needles. When you arrive at the base and look up, you see an imposing all-vertical or overhanging granite wall 305 meters high, with lengths reaching 7b!

A beautiful route to which an intense day of climbing should be dedicated. Reardon made the climb onsight without any planning or inspection in less than two hours, “forgetting the rope at home” and opted to do it unroped, earning recognition from National Geographic Adventure magazine, as well as the blessing of climbers like John Bachar. There is no room for error.

It attracted attention. It attracted people. It was spectacular.

“You are so cluttered with equipment and tools that you lose the purity of the experience.” According to Reardon, “Climbing means going forward until you're too scared to go any further, like when you climbed trees as a child.”

He was a free soloist, he climbed the highest and most difficult routes without rope or safety equipment. No one has pushed the world of free soloing so high. For the elite of climbers, he was an astonishing character; for mortal people like us, he was an alien.

Compared to the legendary feats and his ironclad ethics, which we'll talk about shortly, his personal life is left as a mere footnote even though he had been in an 80s glam rock band, toured with Motley Crue, and made millions of dollars with a film production company.

Reardon was born in 1965 in Rhode Island, USA. His climbing journey began from an early age together with his cousins on the boulders in his grandfather's garden. His skills were immediately noticeable. He moved to California to attend the University of Los Angeles, graduating in Philosophy and Political Science, and then also graduating in Law.

“I don't go anywhere without my iPod! There is a rhythm to life and a rhythm to free soloing, and when you find it, you enter into a deep connection with everything around you.”

EBGB's is one of the most difficult mental challenges to face. It's a 15-meter rock set on the tip of a cliff in Joshua Tree. As soon as you take your feet off the ground, you're immediately exposed.

Usually, those who climb without ropes look for routes with good holds, perhaps physical ones, so that if you make a mistake, you can go back.

EBGB's is none of this; it's a very delicate slab, with the crux 3 meters from the end.

Sliding is easy; when you reach the last move, you have to believe in it and go confidently to the "muffin," a good but distant hold that marks the end of the route and therefore salvation.

It's the climb that made him most proud.

“When you have mastery and awareness of your body, you have to concentrate on the next hold and the next support regardless of whether you are 2 meters from the ground or 200. Climbing is a mental game; if you combine it with physical training, the feeling that you create is crazy.

Sometimes this feeling lasts 30 seconds, other times it goes on for a few days. Lately, I manage to stay focused and make it last for the whole day I climb.”

If you want to free solo climb, here is some wise advice: “Don't fall! When I climb, I don't want ropes, I don't want crash pads, I don't want escape routes. I just want to climb 100%.”

Is it adrenaline-filled to climb unroped?
“No, adrenaline makes you make mistakes and exposes you to risks. I don't like danger; I like being in balance.”

But we all make mistakes... We are at Malibu Creek on the route Kim Chi 7a (5.11d), a short, "bouldery" line with long moves on fairly good holds.

After looking at it and cleaning a couple of holds, he turns on the iPod and sets off free soloing. One hold after another, he gets to the top; he did it.

Not happy, however, he decides to do it again untied to record a video. On the third lap, a few meters from the ground, he loses his footing and has to be persuaded to take the next hold, but unfortunately, the hold explodes under his hand, and he crashes onto the rocks.

The same adrenaline from which he runs away to take refuge in his balance had betrayed him; the confidence had cheated him.

Now he has to deal with the consequences. He breaks his scaphoid and ankle; it takes 3 months before he can be seen on the rocks again.

 

Many people think that, deep down, a climber who climbs only free solo, exposing his life to death every day, has the desire to reach it before others.

They are wrong! The God of free soloing has his wife Marci and Nikki, his daughter, waiting for him at home. He explains, “There are two types of relationships in the world, parasitic and reciprocal. I'm trying to have a mutual relationship with the rock.”

His was an ethic that is still impossible for most climbers to pursue today, requiring extraordinary mental, risk management, and awareness skills, not to mention the sacrifices and risks that this entails.

Mike loved life; he expressed himself by climbing. He was also a serial traveler, he loved adventure.

The last destination was Ireland.

It was the last day of climbing after a month of adventures in the company of his photographer friend Damon Corso, on the island of Valentia.

He was climbing the 180-meter high Fogher cliff, obviously free solo.

Once successfully completed, Michael was standing on a seaweed-covered platform, waiting for the large waves to pass so he could return to Damon on the opposite side of the cove.

A freak wave crashes into Mike and drags him out into the ocean.

Due to the strong currents, in a matter of seconds, he finds himself more than 150 meters from the shore.

The coast guard rescue begins, a helicopter arrives in support while the inhabitants of the island desperately search for him, but without any result. His body was never found again.

“He wasn't just someone who climbed without a rope once in a while.

All he did every day was climb unroped; this was his life," said Kranzle, a cinematographer who has spent the last two years shooting an unfinished free solo documentary that Reardon wrote and directed.

Mike was editing the film when he left for Ireland.

Arriving at the end of the line because of a wave is a tragic and at the same time mocking end, especially if you have onsighted more than 150 routes free solo.

However, we will remember him for the character he was, for his ethics, his values, and for the great passion we share: climbing.

In the following link, you will find the video tributo that made me discover the existence of this serial climber. Before you read us again next time, I'll leave you with this quote that made me smile. 

Only a COOL man can make a statement like this: “Climbing on sight in free solo barefoot and naked is climbing, everything else is compromise.”